Elephants and Dark Forces rampaged around the room at EDDC’s first full council since July last night and  the public address system squealed and howled as if possessed by Harry Potter’s Dementors (or perhaps by the elephants).

The man with the screwdriver on the night was the Chief Executive himself, but his best fiddlings with an array of knobs could not prevent speeches from the dais sound like Darth Vader (mixed movie metaphors here surely?) summoning those from the Dark Side of the Sid Valley and beyond. Or was it a protest on the part of the elephants because they were missing the dulcet tones of unusually absent Leader Paul Diviani? Maybe see if one of those miraculously recruited 25 new canvassers knows a good sparks before the next meeting, Mark.

Longest-serving councillor Douglas Hull did his best to deliver the devastating news he had just received in the previous hour that Axminster Hospital is to lose all its overnight beds, but for some reason fellow Axminsterite and Chairman of the Council Graham Godbeer did everything he could to fluster him, made all the more menacing by the Darth Vader microphone set-up.

It was not dirty laundry Mr Godbeer or Leader-for-the-Night Andrew Moulding (also Axminster) wanted washing in public. Not when there were so many best kept village and long service awards to be dished out.  Whilst nobody would be grumpy enough to deny these good people due recognition, it does make it more soul destroying for this to be followed by bland supplementary answers to incisive written questions (and bland written answers) from Independent councillors sent in prior to the meeting.

The Independents shrewdly chose to reserve comment on many matters until the Leader’s chair can be filled again by Mr Diviani in person. Other Tory councillors must have known it was understudy night because we lost count of the apologies for absence. Unusual this for October – it is usually August when councillors are away from their posts. Perhaps Harry Potter or Darth Vader strike again and those unavailable were preparing themselves for Halloween by sharpening their fangs or preparing for an assault by the Dark Forces at a later date – like election day, perhaps.

Claire Wright did her best, yet again, to induce Deputy Exec Richard Cohen to give the people of East Devon the merest hint of a suspicion of a whiff of what his action resisting the Information Commissioner was currently costing us, but he seemed neither to have an estimate of what has been spent so far, nor any idea of what final cost would ultimately be. Not sure how this sits with public sector procurement policy?

Two questions from the public. Paul Arnott asked Mark Williams why he had not told Tim Wood, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committe, that he had been summoned before an all-party Select Committee at Westminster on electoral matters to explain why he had done no legally-obligatory door-to-door canvassing of the electorate in recent years. Mr Williams replied that he had taken “soundings”, and that’s why he hadn’t told Cllr Wood. “Soundings” lovely word that – should be the opposite of transparent.

Paul Freeman gave a forensic analysis, following up his lauded previous work, on why Mr Williams stated strategy at Westminster of relying on land-line phone canvassing might not be working in the era of the mobile phone, and mentioned again Cllr Eileen Wragg’s experience of finding house-after-house in one Exmouth street with unregistered voters (a fact brought to the attention of Mr Williams at the time).

The Tories did their best to fluster the redoubtable Mr Freeman with their usual background rumblings, and Chairman Godbeer tried to cut him off before his three minutes was up (is this a portent of things to come: cutting down the number of people who can speak and then gradually cutting down the time to nothing!) but they would do well to listen again to what he was saying. Not least, why South Somerset, where Mr Williams is also CEO, has discovered more than tens thousand extra voters in recent years by knocking on doors, while East Devon (CEO Mark Williams) has discovered none by not knocking on any doors.

Mark Williams thanked Mr Freeman him for being the cause of his being summoned to Westminster, where he said he was able to boast to the nation of a consistently more than 90% registration of the electorate. The elephant in the room here was, more than 90% of what, precisely? More than 90% of 100% of the electorate minus the ?% of missing voters. Difficult equation to process that one.

The other standout event was the presentation of a 900 strong petition to the council from the people of Seaton asking Helen Parr’s Development Management Committee not to approve any planning application for a site next to Tesco other than for the much promised and much needed hotel. The site is now being hunted down by McCarthy Stone as yet another retirement complex. An excellent speech from Seaton councillor Steve Williams, followed by the delivery of the petition, which will now be put before the DMC as a consideration before any application is debated, was probably the only moment when the electorate were actually heard in the entire pantomime.